Forests and Trees contribute greatly to the quality of life in Canada and around the world

Wood construction and wood products have a long and traditional history in North America. Through the ages and still today, trees provide building materials for shelter from the elements. They provide an essential function in balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere.

Before the arrival of European settlers to North America, Indigenous peoples used poles and skins to build shelter and logs to build lodges. Early European settlers used logs to build all types of buildings. Initial construction of North America’s transcontinental railways would not have been possible without the use of timbers to construct bridges and trestles.

Today, a wide range of high quality and innovative wood building materials are manufactured. Their performance and relative economy means wood products are unrivalled as the principle structural materials for residential construction. They are also used extensively for the construction of commercial, industrial and institutional buildings.

In North America, wood products dominate the structural framing and sheathing of the residential construction market. There are also many examples of public, commercial, and industrial buildings which have been constructed using wood products as the principle structural material.

Specific Wood Products Pages

Adhesives
Bolts
Canadian Species
Connections
Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)
Design Values for Canadian Species used in Canada
Fire-Retardant-Treated Wood
Framing Connectors
Glulam
Grades
i -Joists
Light-frame Trusses
Lumber
Mass Timber
Nails
Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
Panel Products
Plank Decking
Plywood
Preservative Treated Wood
Screws
Solid-Sawn Heavy Timber
Structural Composite

Laminated Strand Lumber
Laminate Veneer Lumber
Parallel Strand Lumber
Oriented Strand Lumber

Timber Joinery